


Math is fun

by jackwantstoseizethedavey



Series: Davey and Spot Reach an Agreement [3]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angry Davey, Friendship, Gen, Jack just wants everyone to get along, M/M, School, Thinks he's slick Les, smartass Crutchie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 04:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10734402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackwantstoseizethedavey/pseuds/jackwantstoseizethedavey
Summary: So, this was born out of the desire to explore what Crutchie would enjoy from school, while still staying within cannon verse. And who better to help out than Les. This 100% self indulgent, so I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing this.Crutchie/Les- FriendshipJack/Les- FriendshipJack/Crutchie-FriendshipCrutchie/Dave- FriendshipJack/Davey- Pre-Slash





	Math is fun

Les and Davey come by the lodging house some (most) afternoons once school gets out, and depending on how Jack's day is going, they'll stay there for a while and then either head back to the Jacobs’s apartment or get up to something with the other boys.

While they’re there, Davey usually makes Les do at least part, if not all, of his school work, to get it out of the way. 

It’s hard to do when everyone else is having fun, like they usually are, and it's almost impossible to do when Boots and Tumbler are playing marbles. 

Les is trying to concentrate. He really is, but it looks like Tumbler is actually going to win this one, and it's not like usual, where Skittery will stand over the boys until Boots or whoever else is playing, catches on and throws a game or two to be nice. 

Les has started to throw the first or second game everytime he plays with Tumbler, just to make sure Skittery doesn’t come over and do that thing with his face. Mother says it's good that Les does that, that it's nice to make sure Tumbler doesn’t feel left out by never winning. Which he guesses is a good enough reason.

But today he has a math assignment, that MUST be done today. On Saturday night, some of the boys are coming over to the apartment for dinner. And he got permission to invite both Tumbler and Boots and he really wants to show them how to play the family board game. And neither of them have ever had matzah ball soup, and that just cannot stand. And it's going to be soooo much fun, he can hardly stay still thinking about. But he manages when Davey glances over and give him The Look.

His parents made it absolutely clear that he can’t cause any trouble leading up to Saturday, and that means especially, that he can’t put off doing any of his homework, and if Les can't show that he finished his everything, then they’ll have to cancel. He doesn’t think he could stomach telling his friends why the plans were cancelled if it came to that.

Looking back at his math book, he wishes someone would do it for him, but he's too old now to get Davey or Sarah to do it for him, they stopped falling for it a while back.

And since Davey’s out of the question that means he wouldn't be able to talk Jack into it, where they sitting together reading something out of a book.

Trying to figure out a way to not have to do this, he attempts to think of anyone else who might believe him. Race might fall for it, but he hasn't come back yet, and while Mush is so nice, he would ask Davey first if he's supposed to help, which wouldn't work.

He thinks about asking Blink for a second, but he's sitting over with Skittery and they both look serious and he doesn't want both to have them both looking at him like that.

Once he gets towards the end of his list, he has to acknowledge that everyone else is either someone he doesn’t want to talk to, or they're not here at the moment. Which really is just plan awful.

Just when he starts to thinks hes actually is going to have to do his assignment himself, he hears his savior making his way up the stairs with his crutch clicking on every other step.

 

He tries not to stare Crutchie down as he makes his way across the floor, greeting everyone and stopping to chat with Jack for a minute before going to his bed to prop his leg up on a pillow.

Crutchie is perfect, he would be willing to help and he wouldn't ask Davey first, because he hates it when people try to talk to Jack first before helping him with anything. And he’s been selling papes for just as long as anyone else, so he has to know numbers.

So while everyone is distracted by Tumbler running around celebrating his spectacular victory, Les gathers his book and papers and casually strolls over to Crutchie’s bed, trying to make sure no one is paying too much attention to what he’s doing. 

 

Crutchie looks tired, but he greets Les with a big smile like always and pats the empty part of his bed for Les to sit down.

“How's it going kid?” He says as he shifts to give Les a little more room and get more comfortable.

Les and Jack had practiced expressions for a week, until Les could look the right amount of pathetic to whoever he was trying to sell too. And Les had kept up on practicing in the mirror, even though they hardly sell anymore, because it was a useful skill, you never knew when it would be handy, like now for example.

Trying to make sure his face looks the right amount of sad, and making sure his sigh was big but not silly, he looked at his papers and said,

“….it’s fine,” fiddling with the book on his lap.

“Hey! What’s wrong kiddo?” Crutchie sounds curious and touches his arm, which Les takes to mean that he's concerned, just like he planned. 

“Huh? It’s nothing really…” He can’t seem too eager or this will never work.

“Oh come on kid,” Crutchie says as he starts to poke Les in the side, “you can tell you old buddy Crutchie what’s wrong.”

Les can’t help but feel proud of himself, that is exactly what he wanted to happen. He feels smug, because apparently he isn’t just being a big ham, no matter what Sarah tried to tell him the other day.

Now to go in for the kill.

“I’m having trouble with my math homework.” The smile that he gives Les, has him concerned for a second, until he says,

“Hey, will that ain’t so bad, all math is, is just numbers right? How about I help you take a look at it, huh?”

“Really!? Thanks!” Crutchie really is the best, Les thinks to himself as he gets his stuff out.

\----

He knew that Les could do the work himself, he was a bright kid, and that face he had been giving him was straight out of the “make a sucker buy a pape” handbook. But his leg had been hurting all day, and doing Les’s homework would be a good distraction, and really the kid deserved a break every once and in a while. 

Davey was a great fella, but he could be kind of strict with Les. And so, while Crutchie knew the kid was trying to play him, he was going along with it anyways.

Les moved so he was sitting shoulder to shoulder with him at the top of the bed, and then carefully opened his book across both of their laps. 

Looking at the assignment, Crutchie’s first thought was that he wasn’t used to dealing in so many numbers at once, but as Les explained what the point was, it ended up making a good deal of sense. 

Crutchie always had a good head for numbers, was the go to guy to make sure everyone’s counts were right, and that they weren’t missing anything at the end of the day.

He was trusted, the guys knew he wouldn’t take advantage of the fact that they didn’t know a lot, and he prided himself by doing right by anyone who came to him. Crutchie was definitely the only one who knew what most of the guys had set aside to a rainy day.

Going through the question, he didn’t even realize he was stopped pretending that they were doing the work together until he was almost done, and they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

“What are you guys doing?”

Crutchie could feel his face flushing, he thought they would have plenty of time to finish before Jack and Davey wandered over to see what was going on. 

With both of them taking in the scene, it wasn’t hard to figure out just what was going on. Les was doodling on pape that had been left lying around, and now looked lost and nervous, and it was obvious that he hadn’t been paying attention to what Crutchie was doing. 

Taking the book and paper off of their laps, Davey looked over the work. Jack keeps looking between the three of them, not really sure what he’s supposed to say, but he keeps giving Crutchie a wide-eyed stare, because Davey was completely silent.

 

Having reviewed everything on the page, Davey almost feels like kicking himself when he sees that Crutchie got all the questions right, which really makes him feel like a heel. Trying to keep his face from flushing, because it’s not like anyone can tell what he’s thinking, he tries to get back to the main issue here. As odd as it may be, being mad has always helped him focus.

“Les, you know you shouldn’t have done this, you know better.” The frustration is his tone is clear to anyone listening.

 

And Les looks every bit his young age at the moment, like he’s expecting to get in trouble. Which sure, he probably ought to, but that doesn’t mean Crutchie is going to let the kid get lectured to kingdom come. 

“Cut him a break Davey, he’s just a little kid, I offered to help him, so I don’t see what the problem is.”

Davey’s indignant face is pretty funny, and it takes a lot of effort not to start smiling. 

“It’s his work and it's not right to make you do it.” Les was raised better than that.

 

Not wanting Les to be in the middle of what looks like it might turn into a full blown argument between the two hotheads. Jack interrupts before they can really get going and tells Les to go sit with the other boys. As he slinks away, Les looks over his shoulder and gives Crutchie a sad nervous look, which Crutchie returns with a reassuring smile. He’s not too worried, he had faced much more angry people than Davey.

“Yeah, that’s true, it was his work, but he’s just a kid Davey, let him have this one”.

“He’s a kid, sure. But, how is he going to learn anything if he just gets to have other people do things for him.” He had thought Les had outgrown that a couple of years ago. 

“If it happens again you can get mad all you want, but come on Dave, let's just drop it this time. I promise next time i’ll make sure i just help him, not do it for him”. Crutchie looked intently at Davey and tried to remind him about just what would get messed up if Les got into trouble. Which by a stroke of luck, Boots’s voice rose above everyone else’s as he yelled at Blink to give his hat back.

He could see Davey considering with whether or not to go along with it. 

Davey really wanted take the paper and make Les sit and do it again. But they’d have to be home for dinner soon and when they got there the first thing his mother was going to ask was whether or not Les’s homework was done and if he had been good that day.

And really, he didn’t want to explain this to his parents, because then they’d have to cancel having everyone over on the weekend. He was really wishing that he and Jack had sat and talked for a few more minutes before coming over here, then he wouldn’t have to deal with this. 

Thinking about it, Davey was upset with Les, sure, but he knew Tumbler and Boots had been excited all week to get invited over to their home. Tumbler had been asking all the guys to tell him what it was like to be in a house, and what he would be expected to do. And Boots had been such a trooper and was giving him a run down every night about what he remember from when he was younger.

 

Crutchie could see Davey’s resolve was crumbling, but what sealed the deal was Jack leaning over to whisper into his ear. As soon as that happened, Davey got that wide-eyed distracted look that meant he wasn’t thinking about what they were just discussing. Pulling back Jack gave Davey a smile that made Crutchie feel like he was intruding on a moment, even though they were the ones that came over to him. 

Returning the smile for a long second before glancing around and seeming to remember that they were not the only people in the room, Davey distractedly continued,

“I guess it’s fine this time, but you have to promise this was a one time thing.”

Catching the wink from Jack, he did his best to keep his face serious.

“Yeah, yeah, I promise. And honestly Dave I didn’t mind it at all, those math things were kind of fun.” And really it had been, it was nice to see numbers that weren’t only coins and papes. 

“Fun?” Raising an eyebrow Davey looked over at Jack who just shrugged. 

“Yean, fun.” Davey was looking at him with a weird expression, but Crutchie just chalked it up to him still being distracted by what ever Jack had been saying.

Breaking the silence, Jacked nudged Davey and asked Crutchie,

“So, it’s getting late, you going to come with us to have dinner? Mrs. Jacobs was planning on making cabbage tonight.”

“Not tonight, I’m just going to relax and call it in early,” Now that he didn’t have a distraction, he was really feeling his long day, he had had to walk and walk and walk, which usually wasn’t a problem, well not much of a problem, but with the weather cooling down, it had caused his leg to ache, almost without stop.

“Are you sure? Do you want me to bring you something to eat?” 

Crutchie always appreciated that Jack never straight out asked if his leg was hurting, but tried to check on him without being overbearing.

“It’s okay, I’ll just go downstairs with the other guys. You fellas go on ahead and I’ll see you later, give my regards to everyone, okay?” 

“Okay, well, see you later.” Davey still had a look of consternation on his face, as he turned to go get Les, while Jack hung back for an extra minute.

Les had been staring intently from where he was standing with the other boys, pretending to listen to what Specs was saying. Crutchie and Jack both gave him smiles and he finally allowed himself to relax his shoulders when Davey went to tell him that they were heading home. 

Before going to join the Jacobs boys, Jack ruffled Crutchie’s hair and told him,

“Good looking out for the kid. You rest up and I’ll see you tonight okay?”

“Sure Jack, and thank you making sure Dave calmed down.” He didn’t need Jack’s butting in, but it had been helpful.

“Eh, it ain’t so hard to do.” Jack had a smile on his face as he watched Davey handed the homework and book back to Les and told him to collect all his stuff. 

Crutchie liked that smile, knowing each other so well over the years, it was always nice to see someone who could pull such a genuine expression from the guy. It was nice to know that Jack was in good hands even when Crutchie couldn’t be there, it eased that tension he always got when Jack would go off without him. 

And seeing Jack be a sap was always, entertaining, when Jack looked back, Crutchie widened his smile to keep himself from rolling his eyes at the big dope. Which caused Jack to scowl at him, because apparently that expression was fooling no one. 

Saying their goodbyes, Jack followed the other two out of the door, and Crutchie let himself lean back into his pillow to rest for a few minutes before dinner. 

\---

Two weeks later.

Davey made his way over together to where Crutchie was re-lacing one of his shoes, with a new, well, new to him, piece of twine guys had found. 

Looking up, Crutchie asks him, “What’s on your mind Davey?” He was shifting from side to side, like he wasn’t sure what he was doing, which Crutchie was pretty sure he hadn’t seen him do for quite a while. 

“I got something for you.”

Looking back down to make sure he was pulling the twine through the right hole, he tried to figure out the best response. It wasn’t uncommon for the boys to come by with things for him, Mrs. Jacobs liked to send food fairly often. And she was such a genuinely kind person, that is never felt like pity or charity, the way it did with most other people. But typically those instances didn’t start off with an awkward Davey.

“Okay….what do you have?” It was probably best to get to the point in this case.

“Here”

The book slips out of Davey’s fingers faster than he was obviously trying to, and when it lands in Crutchie’s lap, a small cloud of dust rises from the old pages. 

Davey’s face is red, and before Crutchie can tell him he doesn’t need to apologize, he starts sneezing. Taking the piece of old shirt he used as a handkerchief, Crutchie wipes at his face before looking down at the book.

“Why are you giving me math book?” He asks as he opens the book and starts to flip through the yellowing pages. 

“Umm...well...you see. I-I wasthinking…” Crutchie couldn’t help but feel for the guy.

“Why don’t you sit on down and start again?”

Davey plops down next to him with a big sigh, which Crutchie pretends not to hear, and then he starts again, thankfully more slowly.

“Umm, I thought you might like to see some of the math problems that we see at school. You had, umm, you had said that helping Les out with his math had been fun. And our neighbor had this old book that they were getting rid of, and I figured that you could look at it if you want, and uh...yeah.”

“You remembered that?” That was practically a lifetime ago, had Davey really been thinking about that since then?

“Yeah, of course I did, that’s what friends do right?........But, if you, uh if you don’t want it, you don’t have to take it. You don’t need to feel obliga-”

Hey! Hey, hold on a second” He needed to explain before Davey really got going. “Of course that what friends do. I really appreciate it, i just kinda forgot about it. But really this is great Davey, are you sure you don’t need this book though?” This was a great book, it looked like it had so much stuff in it. 

He wasn’t sure how he was going to learn it all, but if he got to keep the book, he was damn sure going to figure it all out. He wasn’t sure why someone would give up a perfectly good book, but who was he to point out someone else’s mistake.

“I’m sure, I already have one myself, and uh, if you have any questions about it, you can ask me.” Davey couldn’t be sure if that was the best way to offer, he didn’t want to insult Crutchie, but if the smile on Crutchie’s face was anything to go off of, the offer got across just fine. 

“Sure Davey! That would be great. Do you think we could look at some now?” He didn’t have any paper, but the pencil in his pocket and the margins should be good enough.

“Yeah, of course, um, lets see, where do you want to start?”

 

When Jack found the two about an hour later, he had to stand back and take a moment to appreciate that his two best friends were getting along just as well as he had been hoping they would. Deciding that they could wait another little while before pulling them away to go get dinner, Jack turned back around and went to see what the other guys were up to.


End file.
